Hedwig, the snowy white owl enjoys her life to the fullest and appreciates everything she has ^^

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Prevent CERVICAL cancer!

Last Monday and Tuesday, I was very hardworking! I went swimming with my roommate Bei Shan at the swimming pool of the condominium I'm staying now.

As a result, I had some muscle pain~~~ and still, I had decided to go for injection at such body condition! lolz...

After long procrastination, finally I decided to pay RM160 to numb (no la, was to inject) my left arm with the HPV vaccine (Cervarix), at USM clinic.

So, what was the injection for? HPV stands for Human Papillomavirus; which causes Cervical Cancer. For your information, Cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer affecting Malaysian women, after breast cancer, according to the information I read in the leaflet. The virus is transmitted through genital skin to skin contact, so it can affect virtually any woman! Hence, the ideal time to vaccinate against this HPV types 16 and 18 is before you get exposed to HPV... means before the first sexual encounter~~~

There is a total of 3 doses: Second dose would be 1 month after the first dose; Third dose would be 6 months after the first dose. Since getting these doses in USM clinic would be cheaper compared to private clinics, I could save more money then.

However, what made me consider quite a long time was the risks that come along with injection. Recently, there was a news bringing the death of a school girl after being injected with this vaccination. However, no detailed updates about the news saying what was the real reason causing the death; what I found was saying:

Information of Cervarix from Wikipedia:Cervarix is created using the L1 protein of the viral capsid. Recombinant activity in a baculovirus vector produces L1 protein spheres, which are very immunogenic. The viral proteins induce the formation of neutralizing antibodies. The vaccine contains no live virus and no DNA, so it cannot infect the patient.

So basically, it should be safe because no virus replication could happen....However, anyone who is allergic to any of the ingredients in the vaccine should not receive this vaccination!There are possible side effects after injection which are normal reaction:headache, aching muscles, fatigue, gastrointestinal including nausea, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, itching, red skin rash, hives, joint pain, fever....for more details, may refer here: http://www.cervicalcancerinfo.co.uk/index.asp

In fact, I was quite worried about these side effects too....Finally, what I had experienced yesterday was: the nurse had a good skill, I felt like bitten by a normal ant when the needle was stabbed into my arm; no pain actually... then, when the vaccine was full injected into my body, immediately I walked out from the clinic without any effects. After walking for some distance, my arm became numb, and I felt like vomitting. But I didn't vomit, just feeling ill, and gasses were filling my stomach... the whole night I kept exhaling those gasses out from my stomach.... besides that, I had some pain at the site of injection. Overall, these effects were common.

Maybe it would be better if I went for injection accompanied by someone =(